ACFE Awards 20 Scholarships In 14th Year Of Ritchie-Jennings Memorial Program

January/February 2009

ACFE News

The ACFE Foundation has awarded $1,000 Ritchie-Jennings Scholarships to 20 college and university students for the 2008-2009 school year. This is the fourteenth year the ACFE has sponsored the scholarship program.

"Once again this year, I want to thank my fellow committee members - Norm Gierlasinski and Vicky Murphy - and the ACFE staff for their tremendous work," said Christopher J. Rosetti, CFE, CPA, chairman of the ACFE's Continuing Education Committee, the group that reviews scholarship applications.

Rosetti said the Continuing Education Committee evaluated 62 applications for scholarships - 51 from North America and 11 from outside of North America.

The committee selected 15 applicants from North America and five from outside of the continent.

"The applications represented a broad geographic distribution, throughout both the U.S. and the international countries, including Bulgaria, Netherlands, Albania, Turkey, Pakistan and the Philippines," Rosetti said.

"I was very impressed by the applicants' interest and their understanding of how fraud impacts society, as well as their ability to balance their grades with work and family life," he said.

Each recipient was selected on several factors: overall academic achievement, a short essay on why he or she deserves the award and how fraud awareness will affect the student's professional development, and several recommendation letters including one from either a local ACFE chapter or a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Rosetti thanked the ACFE chapters and CFEs who helped market the scholarship program on a local level and wrote recommendation letters for applicants.

In addition to funds raised by the ACFE Foundation, ACFE members help underwrite the scholarships by contributing donations when they send their annual membership dues.

The ACFE's Board of Regents voted to name the scholarship program the Ritchie-Jennings Memorial Scholarship Fund in 1998. Tracy Ritchie, CFE, and Larry Jennings, CFE, CPA, were killed Nov. 12, 1997, in Karachi, Pakistan, during a business trip.

Three agencies recently joined ACFE's Law Enforcement Partnership program: the Office of the Inspector General for the City of New Orleans, the Office of the Inspector General of Miami-Dade County, and the Elgin (Illinois) Police Department.